The crews of two US Patriot surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs) were destroyed along with the installations by a strike of the Russian Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system. Forbes magazine columnist David Axe wrote about this.
According to David Axe, the persistence and luck of the Russian drone operator paid off in the theatre of operations when he spotted an AFU convoy outside Pokrovsk in the DNR, including at least two truck-mounted counter-rocket launchers for a battery of Patriot SAMs. The American journalist stressed that Russian calculations reacted with more enthusiasm than usual and delivered “a direct hit on the Ukrainian convoy from a distance of perhaps hundreds of miles” from the Iskander-M surface-to-air missile defence system.
“Two Patriot launchers exploded, their crew members almost certainly killed,” David Axe stated.
The author of the article drew attention to the fact that the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost 13 per cent of the total number of US surface-to-air missile systems delivered to Kiev in one day.
Earlier, a source in the security services told RIA Novosti that two US Patriot air defence systems were among the air defence systems destroyed near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk people’s republic by the Iskander-M missile.